[Hidden Evils of] Baseline Budgeting: The statists’ thumb on the scale

Daily Caller ^ | September 17, 2013 | Ken Hagerty

[WhyNotFreedom?]

On the afternoon of July 12, 1974, House and Senate Democratic leaders were arriving early at the White House — well before their demoralized Republican counterparts. And were they ever pumped! As they trouped into the President’s office for their photo-op, it became clear they considered this a victory party. They almost literally pranced around the Oval Office giving each other the 1970s equivalent of high-fives and chest bumps.

President Richard Nixon was about to sign the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act, one of his last major acts before he resigned from office on August 9. Tucked into the minutiae of its pages was a secret weapon, little understood by most of official Washington then or now, but well appreciated by Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield (MT) and his deputy Robert Byrd (WV), [etc]...in attendance.

*snip*

The crucial provision of that budget act — baseline budgeting — gets nearly as little attention today as it did in the summer of ’74. Yet that rule has silently and relentlessly bloated the size of our government for nearly four decades.

The Budget Act of 1974...mandated one particular approach to budgeting that the federal government would be required to use in perpetuity for discretionary appropriations. Rather than deciding the spending level of each budget account from scratch — a “zero base” — every year...the act mandates that the Congressional Budget Office establish a “baseline” that continues and increases the previous year’s appropriation every year, until the underlying authorizing law expires — which often is never. Later Congresses added additional dollars to the baseline formula for estimated inflation, and still more for population expansion, and a list of other factors.

This “CBO Baseline” put the discretionary side of the federal budget on autopilot and immortalized most federal spending programs.

Excert, read the rest at http://dailycaller.com/2013/09/17/baseline-budgeting-the-statists-thumb-on-the-scale/>/Daily Caller

[Mr. K]

This is why the GOP should NEVER AGAIN say the words “budget cuts” and just say “freeze”

Freeze government spending at current year rates and you balance the budget in 7 years (or less)

Let the democraps TRY to call a spending FREEZE a cut, and make them explain why a freeze is a cut

[Admin Moderator]

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[celmak]

ping

[celmak]

Every time I mention baseline budgeting in a political conversation it always amazes me how many people do not know about it. I always get a good laugh looking at there expressions after I explain it to them! Then I go off in pain knowing that it will be a long time before anything is done about it.